The parents of Friends star Matthew Perry have written to a judge who will sentence a doctor who prescribed ketamine to the actor before his overdose death.
His relatives, in two separate statements Wednesday, said they have trouble understanding why Dr. Salvador Plasencia repeatedly administered the dissociative anesthetic to Perry.
Her father and stepmother said the loss had “devastated” their family as their “next patriarch” was no longer around, blaming Plasencia, a doctor whom Perry’s mother and stepfather called a “jackal” who repeatedly broke his Hippocratic oath.
Plasencia is the first to be sentenced for Perry’s death in 2023 after pleading guilty last summer to four counts of distributing ketamine.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, although prosecutors have asked for a three-year sentence.
Both victim impact statements were filed in the case ahead of Plasencia’s sentencing scheduled for around 2:00 p.m. ET.
He is one of five people charged in a multi-year federal investigation that examined how Perry, 54, acquired ketamine through an underground drug ring in Hollywood. All five have since pleaded guilty.
Perry, best known for playing Chandler Bing on Friends, was found dead in his hot tub in Los Angeles in October 2023 after years of battling depression and drug addiction.
“Matthew’s recovery depended on you saying NO,” his father, John, and stepmother, Debbie, wrote in one of the victim impact statements. “Your motives? I can’t imagine. A doctor whose life is dedicated to helping people?”
His mother and stepfather, Suzanne and Keith Morrison, in their victim statement highlighted text messages included in court records, where Plasencia called Perry a “moron” and asked him how much he would be willing to pay for drugs.
“Sometimes it’s a little easier to understand when a person commits a terrible crime. Maybe in the heat of passion, or because that person makes a very bad decision,” they wrote. “But… a doctor? Who relies on respect and trust?”
They said Matthew had spent some time trying to recover and was hoping for another comeback as an actor.
“He wanted, needed, deserved… a third act. It was… in the planning. And then, those jackals.”
Ketamine has some hallucinogenic effects and should only be administered by a doctor.
The actor was taking legal amounts of the medication prescribed to treat his depression, but then began wanting more than prescribed.
Court documents as part of the federal investigation show she took him to several doctors and a prosecutor called the “Ketamine Queen,” who supplied large quantities of the drug and others from her Los Angeles home, which they called a “drug sales emporium.”
Prosecutors say Plasencia, also known as “Dr. P,” injected Perry with ketamine at his home and in the parking lot of an aquarium in Long Beach, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles.
Plasencia taught Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who also pleaded guilty in the case, how to administer the drug and sold additional vials for them to keep at home, according to court documents filed for the plea deal.
Prosecutors say that between September 30, 2023 and October 12, 2023, Plasencia sold twenty 5 ml (100 mg/ml) vials of ketamine, ketamine pills, and syringes to Perry and his assistant.
Prosecutors have said Plasencia and other defendants in the case “took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction problems to enrich themselves.”
